Boston Book Signing!

Hey all!

So my next official book signing will be in BOSTON in MARCH.  I know it's still a few months away, but if you're planning on going, you need to register.

Don't worry, it's FREE- but they need a head count. 

If you're in the Boston area, please come by. I'd love to meet you, sign your forehead, or whatever else you'd like me to sign.  :) 

Go here for details:
http://bostonauthorevent.blogspot.com

i went to colorado...

And all i got was...


altitude sickness.


HA! 

Seriously though- why didn't any of  y'all warn me that ALTITUDE SICKNESS could happen!??!  So weird.  It sucked. I felt "off" for like 4 freaking days. FOUR DAYS! blah.

BUT, let me tell you- Steamboat Springs is where the crazy Olympic ski people practice their jumps. It was IN-FLIPPING-SANE watching them do this!!!! 

So this is the jump thing. I wish you could tell how TALL and HIGH on the mountainside it was. But you can't. Anyway... not only did the guys have to try to kill themselves on this insane jump thing- once they were at the bottom they had to CLIMB A MILLION STAIRS WITH THEIR SKIES IN THEIR ARMS to do it all over again!!!!!!

Really people, can't you install a escalator to the top or something?!?!!?  Good lord. All I kept thinking when they walked up the stairs was how I would flipping DIE if I had to do that. 

See?!?!? Stairs of death. Plus, they were so hot walking up the stairs of death, they had to fold down their weird unitard thingies. So basically, a bunch of guys walked up a billions stairs topless and I took their pics. Yep. Not creepy. At all.  lol

So once the crazy boys are at the top, they have to put their clothes back on and attach their skis!

Holy shit, now that they are FINALLY up there and all reclothed, they can do what they came to do! FLY DOWN THAT CRAZY THING!!!!!

Crazy right?
Right.

I don't think i'll ever get over the stairs.  THE STAIRS!

dedication. That's the one word that comes to mind. or INSANE. 

:)

meet & greet in Chicago y'all!

Y'all, have you heard about this amazing meet & greet at the END OF SEPTEMBER in Chicago?!?!?

Here are all the details- and you have plenty of time to save! :) Hope to see you there!

http://www.facebook.com/jennnster#!/events/398385536885550/

The Palmer Hilton House in Chicago

Saturday, September 29, 2012

12:00pm until 4:00pm in CDT

Come and meet some extremely talented authors such as: Colleen Hoover, bestselling author of Slammed and Point of Retreat S. C. Stephens, author of Thoughtless & Effortless Tarryn Fisher, author of The Opportunist ... Abbi Glines, author of Ceaseless, While it Lasts & The Vincent Boys Stephanie Campbell, author of Grounding Quinn & Delicate Rebecca Donovan, author of Reason to Breathe & Barely Breathing Jillian Dodd, author of That Boy & That Wedding J. Sterling, author of "Chance Enounters" and "In Dreams" Michelle Mankin, author of Love Evolution and more!!! Most authors will be bringing copies of their books so you can purchase a signed copy...or 2 or 3 or 4! :)

bored

i went to san diego last week. that's why i've been MORE mia than usual. crappiest part? i took like ZERO photos.

we were so busy running around and doing things, that we really didn't take any pics together. i took plenty of pics of the property- which was stupid amazing by the way. but there are like NO pics of us girls together.

suck major.

the only ones i did take of all of us together were with my phone. double major suck.

opposite of amazeballs. argh.

oh well, here are some pretty pics.

this is the view from the balcony outside of my bedroom. it overlooks the main pool- but you can't really see it


and this is a pic of our villa. i swear it's not "pink"... the smaller garage door is for our golf cart!


another shot of the pool area FROM the pool area! :)


oh yeah, i updated my book cover too for the kindle! it's way more fun now! :)

wtc skyline comparison

if you remember, we took blake there for his "double digit" birthday, and so he could see yankee stadium before they tore it down.

you know, the ORIGINAL yankee stadium.

it was also the second time i visited the empire state building. i knew i took pics from each angle just like i had done the first time. i wanted to find the pic of where the towers would have been for a comparison... i remember the weather that day was awful- super humid, cloudy, smoggy, whatever... visibility sucked. but i snapped a billion pictures anyway. humidity be dammed.

i found the pic.

here they are side by side.
the first one taken in december of 2000.
the second one taken in may of 2008.

fdny, engine 8

i just wanted to share some pictures i took of some firemen back in 2000. i honestly don't know if they're okay, or not- but i'm really hoping that they lived through that september day.

the first time i went to new york

it was december of 2000.

i celebrated new years, 2001 there.

i traveled with friends who had far too much money (and myself at the time a single mom with none) so to say the experience was different is an understatement. i saw things i've never seen since. million dollar lofts in soho... apartments with secret passages and rooms. i seriously felt like i was on an episode of gossip girl- before gossip girl was even created!

it was crazy.

this first trip of mine to new york was also the first time i'd ever seen the twin towers. i remember getting off the subway at the last stop and walking through the mall. i stopped in a small store and bought a light blue candle that had yellow stars and moons carved into it. i remember thinking how weird it was to have a mall underground, but that i wanted something from one of the stores in it.

i swear i remember walking past an express clothing store before taking the escalators up.

my girlfriend took me into the towers. i believe it was tower one that had the observation deck? or maybe that was where you bought the tickets? i think i'm wrong.



i didn't know the difference between them. hell, in all honesty- being from southern california, i had never even HEARD of the twin towers before seeing them. when an LA'er thought of new york, they thought of the empire state building, times square, the statue of liberty, central park... i remember asking my girlfriend what the big deal was about those buildings and she was shocked i didn't know what they were, let alone had never even heard of them before (she was from canada where they know everything! :) ). she gave me a little historical background on them, and while i was impressed with their height, i remember thinking.. eh, they're just buildings. and they're nowhere near as pretty as the empire state building, or the chrysler building (you know, when i wasn't thinking the chrysler building WAS the empire state building).

now of course i miss their beauty desperately.

there had just been a HUGE snowstorm and even if the deck was open, we weren't going to be able to see anything. i remember that the outdoor one was closed and that even though it was after christmas and right before new years, there were plenty of people working in the buildings. i remember meeting one security guard at his desk and taking a picture with him. although i can't find that picture anywhere!!! the inside of one of the towers had huge silver snowflakes hanging all around and i remember thinking how cute it was that this huge building got all decorated for the holidays. we walked through both towers. we saw all the stores in one of the buildings and i remember thinking, there's a tailor here? who buys suits when they're already at work? my girlfriend laughed, and tried to explain to me just how many people worked on wall street, let alone the sheer number in the 2 towers.

i think for some reason i simply just didn't.get.it. like i had no comprehension. maybe because it was the holidays and the buildings were virtually empty. the normal hustle and bustle was something i never got to witness. maybe without seeing it, i couldn't even imagine what it was like on a normal workday there.

i remember we left the buildings, walking through tunnels that connected them, or walkways... i can see everything in my mind, but i just have no idea what everything i'm seeing is.





i went to the empire state building by myself on that trip to new york. i think i waited something ridiculous like 4 hours to go up. but it was worth it for this picture alone...



i came back to the city 4 months later and took this picture from a ferry i was on in May 2001



i had no idea that i'd be seeing those cloud souring towers for the last time...

holy shit

the post below is a clear example of how much of a complete psycho i am.

i mean, first i make this huge, exhausting case for the end of all voice mail as we know it... and then i end the fucking post telling people that i love their voice mails... that drunk ones make me laugh... and the ones from people i rarely hear from are the bestest and i keep them forever... MAKING MY WHOLE ENTIRE POST NULL AND VOID!!!!!

wtf?!?!?

oh look! pictures! of new york! and random shit! you know, like my brain.

wait.

these aren't pictures of my brain.

they're just random stuff... like how my brain is all random and crazy and insane. argh, just go look!

let's talk grilled cheese sammies!

i just have to tell you that while in cooperstown, i had THE BEST GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE (sorry mom)!!!!!!!

first of all... look at the size of the freaking bread!!!!!!!! screw no carbs, i was all over this thing!

that is seriously the THICKEST bread i've ever seen in my life!!!!!!!!

but look at this thing. oh.em.gee. doesn't it look amazing?!?!! and i haven't even opened it yet!

OH DEAR GOD! for the love of all that is holy, LOOK AT ALL THAT CHEESE!!!!! and it's white cheese! white american cheese! i've never had a grilled cheese with white american cheese before. *dies*

that freaking grilled cheese was literally the best i've ever had in my life! has diners, drive in and dive's been to this diner in cooperstown?! if they haven't, they should go. like now.

i mean NOW.

oh yeah, and bring me with em.

the scandal at cooperstown!

first of all, cooperstown (aside from being the home to the baseball hall of fame) is also the home of the cooperstown dreams park. some lucky kids get the opportunity to play baseball there during 13 weeks of tournaments. if you don't play when you're 12, you won't ever get the chance again. the concept is super cool.

SO, if you keep up with my facebook posts then you know that out of 104 teams, we made it to the championship game during the week we were there!

pretty awesome, right?

we definitely thought so.

now here's where things get dicey. and i must mention that the rumor mill runs rampant at that park. i can't even tell you the amount of crazy things i heard that week.

the other "team" that made it into the championship game wasn't even a team before the tournament. they were put together by the man who OWNS cooperstown dreams field. this team had kids from 5 different states on it. our boys were like, "they didn't even know each other's names." apparently, the team was put together so that the owner's grandson could play on a winning team. another thing i heard was that they flew the pitcher in that day to pitch in the championship game. i don't know if that's true or not, but it honestly wouldn't surprise me.

let me side note really quickly with a, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!! your grandson HAS to win, or what? he feels just like the other 103 teams that played there and didn't win?!? what the hell are you teaching that kid? you have a sucky team that won't go very far.. don't worry kid, i'll BUILD one for you, and pay for the team to come there. i mean, what a freaking joke. it's one thing to care about your family, but it's another thing to seriously go overboard with the whole "winning" and "losing" concept. personally, i think that guy is sort of an asshole who needs to learn how to lose. not to mention the fact that he's probably not helping his grandson with any real character building experiences.... aside from having to deal with other kids hating him for being so spoiled. i suppose that builds character somewhere down the line.

now let me just say that teams being built like that- is not this totally crazy, far out concept. teams do it all the time. and if someone called me up and said, "hey jenn, we want to fly blake out to play on this team in florida- and all expenses are paid for." you'd find me hard pressed to say NO. so i get the concept. i understand the idea. and i'm not opposed to it, necessarily.....

but what i do think is...

there is a TIME and a PLACE for teams like that to be playing against one another. but that's the key- multiple teams like that- all sorts of built and put together teams to be playing against each other.

cooperstown dreams park tournament is NOT the time, NOR the place for something like that to happen.

you have to understand that the teams that go to those tournaments, are local little league times... or teams who play travel baseball together all the time. some of the teams are really great. and some aren't so great. but they're all there for the same reason- to play baseball in a really cool environment. to do the thing they enjoy doing. to play with heart. it isn't all about winning. it's about the experience.


so to have the freaking owner build a team to basically CRUSH all the other competetion, was just pathetic. no team that played that team stood a chance. we knew going into the game that there was no way in hell we were going to win. i don't care about that part- what i mean is, we didn't have to win the game, but it sure as hell would have been nice to at least have a GOOD game. there was no hope for a good game against this team of 6 foot 12 year olds, with a pitcher who threw 80 miles an hour.


yes people, 80 miles an hour for a 12 year old is NOT normal. that is crazy fast. the kid was ridiculously talented.


but how was that game fun for anyone? it wasn't fun to watch. it couldn't have been fun to play. not even for the team who crushed everyone. and really, didn't they do exactly what they were put together to do? oooooh, you guys got to the championship game? how shocking. you won the game? ooh, even bigger shocker.


i just think it was a really shitty move. not to mention pathetic.


what happened at that tournament should go against everything that park should be about. and the fact that it was the owner who did it, makes it even more jaw dropping. actually, that's the part that makes me ANGRY. that he knew what he was doing. what he was doing TO 103 other teams. he needs to see that he wasn't doing something great and nice for his grandson, but he was doing something selfish and mean to about 1200 other kids. his "gesture" was at the expense of everyone else there. and it wasn't fair. it wasn't a fair fight. and i just think it's wrong on every level, regardless of us being in the championship or not.

i know i wasn't the only one to feel that way because the ENTIRE stadium that night was rooting against that prebuilt team, and for us. they would have rooted against that team no matter what- everyone was so pissed off about the whole thing.

anyway, the true champions that night were this group of kids. at least in my eyes.

so cal trip!

i went down to so cal last week... which some of you already know because you saw my post about MAKING DONUTS AT A DONUT SHOP AT MIDNIGHT! which seriously, was pretty much the coolest thing ever!!!!!!

and you read about my high school reunion. which again, was ridiculously fun!! a billion times more fun than i ever anticipated it would be! :)

but you didn't see all the other things and people i got to see while i was down there! it was by far the best trip i've taken in a long ass time. i saw SO many people (and not in a rushed way either).. far more than i ever normally see when i head home.

i visited my super fun gf who i have known since we were teenagers!!! we made a reverse oreo with our hot friend franklin.




he was such a good sport and let us dress him up with silly glasses and do stupid things. we <3 you ft!!!!




i left santa monica in my rearview (literally)


and headed over to my most favorite beach ever... (enter malibu, pt dume, surfrider, zuma, etc)


headed home for my reunion, but not before stopping by my sister's house for a quick photoshoot with the fam!






then i headed down to san diego and loved my drive along the coast.


where i spent the night with my high school bff ali and her family. :)






and then i visited my college bff's family and had the best time ever!






what an overwhelming, emotionally satisfying, incredible trip- filled with people i love, adore and cannot believe i'm so blessed to have in my life. :) xoxo

happy summer everyone!

today was filled with DISNEY!

of the land and the adventure kind!!!! :)

because i live dangerously (and risk potentially losing my phone.. clearly i am CRAZY!!!!) this is me and my brother DURING big thunder mountain railroads ride. HAHAHAH


we.love.pretzels!!! of the mickey mouse kind.



cindy (@californiaboys) came to see me! YAY!!! she was gorgeous and awesome and wonderful! :) but it was awesome because i was texting her once she said she was IN THE PARK!!!! and i was like "awesome! i'm wearing bright ass yellow!!!" to which she responds with something like "cool." and i was dying... like well what the hell are you wearing?!?! so i ask her. she responds with, "black." LOL this was going to be hard.
this is us without our sunglasses on...

and then with, for the papparazzi.. you know how it is. (right dan?)


me and my brother (did i mention that he awesomely drove out last minute from vegas to do disney with us! rad!!!)


a horse. i love horsies. this is his butt. ha


last, but not least.. me and the boy